This weekend, more than one million people are expected to take to the streets in over 50 countries to demand an end to the burning of fossil fuels and the subsidies that support them. This global climate protest is the largest of its kind since the COVID-19 pandemic began and is in anticipation of COP28, the United Nations climate summit, where more than 80 countries will push for a global agreement to gradually phase out coal, oil, and gas.
The burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change, and countries have never agreed in UN climate talks to phase out fossil fuels – though they have committed to “phase down” the use of coal power. Wealthy nations will face pressure to provide more funding to help developing countries invest in low-carbon energy sources.
Organizers of the demonstrations expect the global turnout over the weekend to total more than one million people. According to Al Jazeera English and Reuters.com, protesters will call on governments to end subsidies for oil and gas immediately and to cancel any plans for expanding fossil fuel production. Eric Njuguna, a climate activist based in Nairobi, Kenya, said, “We’re taking to the streets to demand that African leaders phase out fossil fuels and focus on investing in community-led renewable energy to meet the energy demand for the 600 million Africans who do not have access to electricity.”
At the UN General Assembly next week, 15,000 people are expected to join a march in New York City, and Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a climate activist with the youth movement Fridays for Future in Manila, Philippines, said, “The fossil fuel industry’s time is up. We need a just transition and we need to phase out the fossil fuels causing the destruction of our environment.”
The United Nations has warned that countries are way off track to curb warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, as agreed in the Paris Agreement of 2015. The world has warmed at least 1.1C since then. Over the past few months, Earth has broken its daily average heat record several times. According to one metric, July was the hottest month ever on record.
This weekend’s protests are an important reminder of the need for immediate and drastic action to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy sources. We must make sure that wealthy nations provide the much-needed funding to help developing countries invest in low-carbon energy and that governments phase out fossil fuels to protect our planet from the devastating effects of climate change.
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